Morrill Scholar AwardedChurchill Scholarship

The Office of Diversity and Inclusion is pleased to announce that Morrill Scholar Henry Tran has been named one of two 2016 Churchill Scholars from The Ohio State University. The Winston Churchill Foundation awards fifteen scholarships annually to graduating seniors and recent graduates demonstrating exceptional academic talent, outstanding personal qualities, and a capacity to contribute to the advancement of knowledge in the sciences, engineering, or mathematics. The scholarship supports one year of graduate study in a relevant field at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. While at Cambridge, Henry will pursue an MPhil in Scientific Computing.

Henry is a graduating senior who serves as an Office of Diversity and Inclusion peer mentor. An honors student in chemistry and mathematics, Henry is conducting research on Jahn-Teller distortions of the NO3 molecule in the theoretical chemistry lab of Ohio Eminent Scholar Dr. Terry Miller in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Henry presented his analysis of NO3’s rotational spectrum and structure in oral presentations at the 2014 and 2015 International Symposia on Molecular Spectroscopy and the 2015 International Symposium on Free Radicals. Previously, he conducted theoretical mathematics research in Dr. Sergei Chmutov’s Knots and Graphs Working Group within the Department of Mathematics.

Henry was recognized for his research accomplishments by being named a 2015 Goldwater Scholar. He has received a number of grants for his research and academic performance, including the American Chemical Society Junior Chemistry Achievement Award, the Gary Booth Chemistry Scholarship, the Sophomore Organic Chemistry Award, and the Goldstein Memorial Mathematics Scholarship. After receiving a PhD in theoretical chemistry, he plans to teach and conduct research developing computational methods to understand the electronic structure of important molecules as a professor.

Henry’s research is advised by Dr. Terry Miller, who also attended the University of Cambridge. “Cambridge is not for everyone, but for some students with special talents there is no finer place on earth to receive an education,” says Miller. “Henry is such a student and I’m sure that he will take full advantage of this opportunity.”

Henry, along with Ohio State senior Alexis Crockett, was selected out of a pool of ninety-one nominees from sixty-one institutions. Only 108 institutions are eligible to nominate students for the Churchill, and each participating university may only nominate two students annually.

For more information about the Office of Diversity and Inclusion's Morrill Scholarship Program, click here.